Chapter 44

For the first time in Jae's life, he was proposed to.

However, he wasn't happy about it.

In fact, he felt a strong sense of discomfort.

The moment the word 'marriage' was spoken, a figure appeared in Jae's head. No, it was more like a precious, buried memory, had momentarily risen to the surface.

〔Jae~. Have you ever had any thoughts about the future?〕

〔What? What d'ya mean?〕

〔Uhh, you know. Like, jobs... marriage and stuff.〕

〔Marriage? Well... I dunno. Why?〕

〔Ugh, come on! You must have some kind of an idea about if you'd ever want to, like, get married, or have kids or something, and if so, how many you'd wanna have, no?〕

〔Um? ......Uhh... Not really, no. I haven't thought about it much.〕

〔Wha-? There's no way you haven't, come on.〕

〔No, I'm pretty sure. I just... don't often think about things like that, y'know? I'm sure there's a lot of people that don't. Anything could happen before then anyway, so I don't really think it's worth deciding at this point what I'm gonna do. People also change over time, so even if I make a decision now then it might change in a few years.〕

〔Hmph. Are you trying to be a philosopher or something? Like, what the hell?〕

〔Well, no, but...〕

〔Haa... Then, would you marry me?〕

〔......T-that's a loaded question.〕

〔S-so?〕

〔....Well, uh... We're fifteen? Even if you wanted to, it wouldn't be possible. You'd have to wait at least a year until you're sixteen and even then--〕

〔I'm not asking whether it's possible or not. I asked whether you would. Gosh.〕

〔...Ahhh... Then... Uh... Well, sure, I guess I would...〕

An expression that could only be described as sad formed on Jae's face as he reminisced.

...Amelia...

Until now, he had been repressing such memories because of the pain it caused him.

...I miss her...

Looking at himself through the reflection of the glass table, Jae understood that he looked completely different compared to him from a year ago in real time. Not only had was he now, physically, an adult, but since he also started working out in the forest and the Pride Dungeon, he was incomparably more fit than he was on Earth.

Years had passed for him alone, after all.

Mentally, too, he felt as if he had grown leaps and bounds. He had even experienced death a number of times. Unfortunately, however, Jae saw none of the good in these things at this moment.

...Would she... even recognise me?

He thought that perhaps there was a slight chance, but also probably not. Chances are, Amelia wouldn't recognise Jae at first, second, or even third glance. Even if she did know it was him, he thought about how awkward it would be for her.

Jae contemplated and eventually came to a conclusion: He decided not to accept the marriage proposal for now, but...

...Maybe it's time to move on......

The chance that he would get to see her again was pretty much nil anyway, with the only method he could think of being the whole Heroes' Summoning Ritual that Serionia initially brought his old class here with.

If he had the opportunity to figure out how that worked, then of course he would make use of it to learn, however...

I don't want to force her into this fucking world.

Therefore, Jae resolved to just move on with his own life, though he would be sure to never forget her.

He refreshed his mind with a deep breath before asking in an accusatory tone.

"What are you planning?"

Leila, in response, retracted her outstretched hand, "Your Race; it may not be 'Human', but it is near enough. I merely wished to try and bridge the gap between humans and Demons."

"Like a political marriage? But like you said, I'm technically not human. Even if I were, it's not like I'm famous or anything. Why would it matter?"

Well, aside from the wanted poster and bounty... I'm probably more leaning towards infamous than anything else.

"It seems you misunderstand something.", Leila spoke calmly, "Rumours are powerful things. If a rumour was spread that 'the Demon Queen of Asphal had espoused a human', then I'm certain that tensions between the two races would decline. Even if it wasn't technically the truth, nobody would know."

Jae was almost convinced but shook his head with a slight frown.

"No, no, you're the one who misunderstands."

His mind, recalling the scene where his old school teacher was executed in front of the students for being 'demonic' and 'evil'.

Recalling the scene where Chris, his ex-classmate, had sworn to slay all the Demons and Demon King.

Recalling the scene where Jae himself was persecuted and killed for 'being in cahoots with the Demons', even though there was no feasible way that could have happened.

Recalling even the scene where the Baghwud Village guards, Reddek and Robin, had admitted that some of the villagers might not want to adopt Rena because she was a Demon.

Despite not being in this unkind world for too long, these events were why Jae could speak with certainty.

"―I've seen with my own eyes what Seronia thinks of Demons, at the very least. They wouldn't give a damn if some unheard of human married a demon. On the contrary, they would probably call it 'brainwashing' and use it as an excuse to muster up more forces to attack you with. It would only result in backlash."

His frown deepened.

"That's just the type of people they are. It's futile."

The room was bathed in silence for a moment before Leila slowly nodded.

"I see. There was the other reason, however, it seems you truly don't wish for this, so I will--"

"Wait, what other reason?"

"Oh, only that the child would undoubtedly be upset if she found out that who she thought was her father, was, in reality, completely unrelated all along."

"Hm? No, that's not right. Why would she think that?"

"Pardon?"

"..."

"..."

Both were confused, it seemed. During the quiet, Jae inevitably thought to reassure himself.

I'm right, aren't I? Wait, wait. The one who told them I was Rena's father in the first place was Jiyeru; I'm certain of that. But then, did they not even question Rena herself before bringing me here? Hours passed, and because of who she is, there's no way they didn't ask her at least one question about me during that time. Right?

Uh, hold on. That's not right though. They can't have asked Rena about me. Or, they did, but she refused to answer? Because if she did tell them who I was, she wouldn't have told them I was her father, but that I was her teacher or master or something.

After all, I was only her temporary guardian until we arrived at the castle, and she should've known that. So, is that what happened? They're going off Jiyeru's report? Their info is super outdated, then. Oh, yeah, they must've questioned Bailey as well, huh... In that case, it has to be what happened because he also would've affirmed the fact that I'm only Rena's temporary guardian.

About the time Jae concluded his thoughts, Leila opened her mouth again.

"Excuse me, but were you meaning that Rena didn't think of you as her father?"

"Well, it's a long story, but that shouldn't be the case."

"Ah. I see...", she murmured as if in realisation of something. Jae's eyebrows furrowed.

"What is it? Did she say I was?"

She shouldn't have said that? Unless she got her memories back or something...... Don't tell me, is that what happened?

"Mm. Jae..."

Leila gently laughed with a hand covering her mouth and spoke softly, before continuing with a smile.

"I think you need to have a talk with your daughter when the opportunity arises. That is, if you accept her as such."

Rather belatedly, Jae realised the essence of Leila's words.

......Was Rena really lying to me the entire time?

----------------------------------------

Meanwhile, in an unnamed valley.

"...Should be enough. Oii! This's it for today!"

*Neighh~!*

Ryan slowed his horse to a halt and jumped off as it neighed, shaking its mane. Behind him, two others also halted their horses; tightly keeping ahold of the reins as they dismounted. Of course, they were his classmates/subordinates, Nicolas and Kaitlyn.

He walked over to the high, vertical wall of the deep and dusty valley they had been travelling through, and placed his hand on the tough rock surface.

"「Dig」"

It was a simple, Elementary-tier Earth Magic spell, but its usefulness was guaranteed. As he cast the spell, a large hole in the wall was formed that went about five metres deep. Casting it a few more times, and a sizeable cave was formed within the side of the valley, almost instantaneously.

"Bring 'em in an' rest up.", he said roughly, to which the two replied simultaneously.

"Yes."

"Will do."

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They brought the horses into the newly-created cavern and sealed up the entrance with another Elementary-tier spell,「Earth Rise」. For reference, it was the first magic that Jae had ever used, and because Ryan had maxed the level of it, he was quickly able to replace what had been removed by「Dig」.

He left a few holes for decent air circulation and a slit so they could see the position of the sun outside. Currently, even though it was only about noon, Ryan planned for them to stay at least a couple of days in this cave, as he had something of great importance to get on with.

But first, it would be good to explain what exactly they were doing in this remote location, about 60~70 kilometres away from Seronia's capital city.

You see, Ryan doesn't trust Seronia. Not his classmates, the Princess, the Prince―even the King. No, especially the King. After all, it was the King who made the decision to drag them into this world in the first place. In any case, Ryan harbours a great hatred for the people of this world.

Fuckers. They arbitrarily called us 'heroes', forced us through asshat trainin' 'gainst the li'l goblin shits, and begin preparin' us for war all whilst makin' us go back to shitty school. All for their trashy greed n' pride. The countries they're fightin' ain't even our enemies, but they all get convinced that what they're doin' is "heroic" an' shit, just cause'a all the crap n' praise they get.

Ryan believes that everything they have been told by the country is either lies, misinformation or twisted truths. Most likely, all three. Of course, real truths would be mixed in there to make it relatively believable, but Ryan despises the fact that the country is trying to use him for its own gain.

The fact the Dexter bastard even allowed me to participate in war preparations n' plannin' too is fuckin' stupid. He just wanted to use my knowledge an' intelligence. They're all scumbags, the lotta them.

Because of this, as well as a few other, more minor reasons, he decided to escape the place he called a "shithole". Quite a while ago, in fact.

He began preparing quite a while ago but kept up the act like everything was normal. He stockpiled supplies, scouted an escape route out of the city, and even planned ahead for possible rest points and a primary destination. Once he was all primed and ready to go, he only needed to wait for an opportunity.

―One that finally arrived today. Specifically, yesterday evening.

Yesterday, the class had another hunt, as it was the end of the month. This was the last one for the class this year, as it is the year they graduate. By the way, the graduation is in about a week from now. Anyway, because of the hunt, the class was completely exhausted. They slept as sound as logs.

Ryan, however, stayed awake throughout the night, forcing Nicolas and Kaitlyn to do the same. As soon as the clock struck 03:00 AM, he assembled them in his room. Then, they followed his plan and fled the city. At the edge of the city, they had previously left some well-trained horses that were already all ready to go with the loaded supplies.

They simply hopped on and rode away. Thankfully, they had spent the past half a year learning horseback. Now, about 10 hours later, they were far enough away that they could reliably rest for at least a week without being found.

Much of this was possible thanks to preparation and the Endurance stat. Because the three of them purposefully saved their energy during the hunt yesterday, they were still able to go even a few days without sleep with the help of high-energy foods, as well as stamina and mana restoratives.

"Hah!"

Ryan could only laugh mockingly at the fact his plan worked flawlessly, without a hitch.

Perhaps the Princess was even performing her entrancing speech right now about how Ryan was corrupted by the Demons.

Though it's not like it matters, since he didn't plan on returning for a long time.

Those moronic bastards. I don't give a shit if ya call me a demon, but don't dare to get in my way. Tsk, the only regret is that knight captain. She constantly avoided me ever since that time. Didn't even see me off. Bitch. Oh, I guess not bein' able to give Chris a good thrashin' is a big shame too, but he won't die any time soon.

He walked over to his horse, which was drinking water, and roughly rummaged through the luggage it carried. Eventually, he took out a scroll. Upon glancing at what their leader was doing, Nicolas shouted in surprise.

"Uh, Ryan?! Is that--!?"

"Yeah, so shuddup."

"Hm? What is it? Ryan, what's that scroll for?"

"Heh. You'll see.", he said with a grin.

Kaitlyn was the only one who was clueless, and Nicolas only knew that it was a 'magic scroll', as he was the one that stole the item (on Ryan's orders, of course). But what neither of them knew, was that the scroll Ryan currently held was in fact, a very extraordinary item. So much so, that he would be hunted to the ends of the Earth if it was found out that he was in possession of it.

Unfurling the priceless thing alone caused tensions to rise, and when Ryan laid it out fully on a crude table he quickly formed with「Earth Rise」, they uniformly gasped.

"...Ryan... What the fuck, man?"

"R-Ryan....... I-is this... real?"

Ryan's grin widened to reveal his white canines as he relished the two's reactions. Despite having read over it previously and studying it countless times, every time his sharp eyes went over the bold words at the top of the rich parchment his body trembled with delight.

【Hero Summoning Ritual】

"...Aha....Hahaha....", Nicolas blankly laughed as if he couldn't believe the situation.

"I knew what I stole was bound to be valuable, but this..."

He muttered aloud. On the other hand, Kaitlyn was utterly speechless.

"..."

Ryan himself had just about regained his cool and announced his plans to the two.

"This'll take about half a day of prep, so just relax n' take care'a the guys 'til then.", he said, gesturing towards the horses.

"...Yes..."

"R-right..."

They were a bit dazed, it seems. Ryan shrugged and left them alone for a bit. Using「Dig」, he excavated a second room out and quickly lit the place with「Illumination」, a Light Magic spell. He then placed the unfurled scroll on another, closer mound of rock for ease of access. Once all was done, he closely analysed the scroll again.

Hm... Fuckin' 'ell.

It was an incredibly complex magic circle on the surface, but Ryan felt there was something deeper. Looking at it now, Ryan still couldn't figure out at all how it worked, so all he could do was copy the diagram and hope for the best.

Is this really somethin' those fuckers came up with? I doubt it. Where'd they get somethin' of this calibre? Cheatin' bastards. Somethin's fishy... Whatever.

He focused all his efforts on replicating the magic diagram. This is what he spent most of his advance preparation for, after all. Walking back over to the horses, Ryan took around half of the large adventuring bags they had brought with them, as that was just how many materials were needed. The other half mostly contained necessities like food and water.

Anyway, with the materials, Ryan began.

It was extremely difficult at first, and the magic circle was almost incomprehensible, but Ryan was confident. After all, the main method he used to cast powerful spells was with Runes, which incorporated the use of magic circles, so he was semi-used to this kind of work.

He worked tirelessly, and it was a sight to see. Even Nico and Kaitlyn eventually found themselves watching Ryan as he was completely absorbed in making the magic circle.

Eventually, he came to realise how certain parts of it worked. Instead of it being just one magic circle, it was as if dozens of magic circles were layered on top of each other, and yet, they all somehow fit perfectly with one another, creating a highly elaborate design.

Every time they thought he was about finished, he started adding one geometric shape after another.

A large circle that encompassed four rectangles and three triangles, followed by more circles within each of those rectangles and triangles, which then had some kind of ancient writing within them, et cetera―Ryan drew all kinds of connected and magical patterns on the smooth, rocky floor of the cave with his enchanted chalk and other materials.

Shapes, shapes, runic writing, more shapes, more writing... Nicolas and Kaitlyn had no idea what any of it actually did or signified, so they could only observe cluelessly.

More hours passed, and the thing that would be a great dishonour to call a mere 'magic circle' had expanded even further.

More circles, rectangles, triangles, curves, lines and other various shapes and runic characters were added. The Summoning Circle had quickly grown to the size of the entire room, which had to be dug out a bit more, and Ryan suddenly realised that he had finished.

He blankly stared at his creation for a moment.

"......Huh."

"Oh!!? Ryan! You finally done?!"

*clap clap clap clap--!!*

Nicolas yelled, to which Kaitlyn began applauding. Ryan shortly sighed in exhaustion and replied.

"Yeah, with the first part."

""...""

The applause stopped, and the two grew silent.

"'Bout time for a break though. It's night."

Yes, the three had gotten so invested that they hadn't noticed the time fly by. It was now dinner time, so they ate after feeding the horses.

"―Sho, what'dya meahn by 'firsht pahrt'? I fought dat wash it.", Nicolas asked with a stuffed mouth.

"Swallow your fucking food before speaking. And do you even know how magic works?", Kaitlyn, baffled, retorted in place of Ryan.

*gulp!*

"Nope!", he said with a cheeky grin.

"...Of course. Haah. Basically, it just needs mana to operate, and since it's a type of magic circle, it will operate more efficiently if mana crystals are connected. So they need to be added first. Is that right, Ryan?"

"Pretty much. Though the stones have more of a purpose than simply supplyin' mana."

The two didn't quite understand, so he elaborated.

"...The stones 'emselves don't do nothin' but act as batteries for the circle, so you gotta connect 'em properly to the rest of the circuit to ensure magic ain't lost during the transfer. When connected, the stones can do a helluva lot that you wouldn't expect. Weird shit, like special effects or bonuses, y'know? It all varies dependin' on shit like the size, purity, an' shit. It's not somethin' ya need to know about unless ya wanna do somethin' really specific though, or crazy, so usually it makes no difference."

"Ah, I see..."

"...Huh. Magic is complicated stuff."

"Tsk. And that's why you should just stick to your Skills, Nico. God forbid you learn magic."

She tapped her temple with her index finger.

"―That small brain of yours can't handle the kinds'a stuff Ryan does anyway. It'd be a total waste of time."

"H-Hey!? What the hell?! The fuck was that for?! I'm smarter than you think. Stop laughing!"

Ryan stood up with a smirk as he listened to the two's ridiculous back-and-forth, and went to continue with the Summoning Circle.

Meanwhile, he recalled the conversations he had been having with the target of his「Dimensional Contact」.

In short, he had told them of the other world he had been summoned to after finding out that it was someone from the same school. He didn't care about who it was though, so he didn't ask. The other person had quickly figured out it was Ryan from his way of speaking, however.

For some odd reason, the moment the other person found out it really was Ryan who was sending them these messages, they heavily insisted that Ryan find a way to bring them to this other world.

Ryan, who figured there were a few ways to make it happen, agreed to try and summon the other person with the condition that they assist him in his goals wholeheartedly for at least a year.

He wanted this for two reasons: One was to strengthen his group―it had only had to be temporary as they all would've grown a lot stronger by that time. The other reason was that Ryan was interested in whether the other person would have a Unique Skill. If they did, it would be a huge boon.

The other person immediately accepted his condition, which made Ryan slightly curious as to why they wanted to come to this world so badly. He asked why, and the other person said they know someone who got caught up in the incident. They asked him if everyone was still alive, and Ryan said yes except the teacher.

Since then, they continued sending [Mail] to each other every so often to keep up-to-date. Ryan found out a few things from talking. Firstly, there was barely any time difference between the two worlds. It was exactly a 1:1 ratio. That, and the two worlds had the same calender; 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Secondly, there had been zero similar incidents since a year ago. For Ryan, this only meant that no other countries had summoned a group of people after them, so it was good news for an entirely different reason.

Thirdly, that incident, after being widely discussed on the news, was officially announced as an "unexplainable supernatural event."

Fourthly, the school was shut down after being unable to handle the money lost from almost 30 separate court cases as it was sued by the victims' parents, as well as the ruthless bombardment of media reporters urging them to give an explanation which simply wasn't possible. As such, the remaining students were all transferred to different schools.

To Ryan, he didn't really care what was going on back on Earth, as he never really planned on finding a way to return there. It would be a lie, however, to say that he wasn't curious at all though.

At one point, the other person suddenly asked if Ryan could bring over two people at once.

Of course, by this time, he had already begun researching summoning methods, including how he himself was summoned. Thanks to those efforts, he eventually managed to get the location of where the scroll for the summoning ritual was kept, and he had Nicolas steal it with his「Presence Erasure」skill.

...The only problem was, Ryan could only summon up to one person. It was because he realised he wouldn't have enough mana for it. Even with extra mana crystals and the full capacity of his and his allies' MP, combined, Ryan calculated that he wouldn't even have a sixth of what he would need to summon more than one person.

It made him spew violent curses, as well as wonder just how on earth Seronia managed to summon over thirty people at once. But he had no time to contemplate such things, so he just accepted the one person limit.

The other method he thought of, was something related to his Class, [Avosa's Disciple]. He reasoned that the thing that made it possible for him to communicate with another dimension in the first place would also be able to let him summon beings from that dimension. Unfortunately, no news came about his Class ever since「Dimensional Contact」, so that plan was thrown away.

But it was no problem. After all, he only planned on summoning the one person to begin with. If they wanted to summon someone else along with them, then they could just do that at a later date. Though, to collect the mana necessary for even one person took him over half a year.

"...That it?", he muttered as he stretched his limbs. Nicolas and Kaitlyn called out to him after rushing over from the other room.

"Yo Ryan! Is it done yet?! It's almost midnight!"

"Shut up, ya cunt! Yeah it's done! So shut ya mouth n' stand back."

He had already sent a message earlier today that he was going to try the summoning ritual, and the other person had affirmed that they were ready at any time.

Briefly sighing, Ryan crouched down and began to inject mana into the magic circle. As it flowed smoothly through the circuit, the entire magic circle began to glow dimly. The cool, blue radiance was absolutely mesmerising.

The light expanded. It became so dazzlingly bright that the three had to reflexively squint their eyes.

*vrhooooom~~!!!*

*RUMBLE~!*

With a loud, continuous noise that reverberated throughout the cave, and so powerful that it shook the entire valley―as if an earthquake was occurring―Ryan's mana almost completely depleted.

And then...

As the noise slowly calmed down...

Just before his mana had run totally dry...

...A shape had appeared beyond the gradually dissipating light.

―It was the silhouette of a person.

With sharp gasps coming from behind him, Ryan, who was on one knee, was dripping with sweat from the rapid depletion of his mana.

He looked towards the person who had obviously just emerged as a result of the Summoning Circle.

His only thought was 'it fucking worked'.

Taking breaths, he rose to his feet.

A tinge of anxiousness in the back of his mind.

The person, who still could not believe what happened was real, spoke.

"...Ryan. Haha. I can't believe it really worked... This is another world?"

He replied, "Yeah. An' it's just as shitty a place as I said it was, so ya better watch out. Don't forget the deal."

"Of course..."

She was only briefly silent before wearing a serious expression. Ryan snorted.

"Hah. You good? Summonin' you took almost my entire stock of mana, y'know? You look different since last time. It's been a hot minute, huh? Amelia Rannuel."

"...Ryan?"

She frowned deeply after glancing around the room.

"Huh. What? Time'a the month?"

Ignoring his words, Amelia said the very first thing that she was concerned about, and the entire reason she asked to come to this world.

"―Where is my boyfriend?"